Social Assistance in Developing Countries

Abstract

In a comparatively short period of time, programmes providing direct transfers in cash and in kind to households in poverty have expanded to reach between 740 million and 1 billion people in the South. The book Social Assistance in Developing Countries provides a comprehensive account of the global growth of social assistance transfer programmes in developing countries. Social assistance describes programmes and policies addressing poverty and vulnerability. In the ‘golden age’ of European welfare states, social assistance was seen as a residual institution and expected to wither away. In the last two decades, developing countries have introduced or expanded innovative forms of social assistance contributing to the reduction of global poverty. (…)